The Improvement of Maori Land Titles CONVERSION Fourth of a series of articles by TOITU TE WHENUA This is the fourth of our series of articles to explain the intricacies of Maori land titles. The Young Leaders Conference considered that more information should be available to the average man. Anyone who seeks further knowledge should send us his questions. Ko te tuawha tenei o nga korero hei whakamarama i nga uauatanga o nga Taitara Whenua Maori. Ko te tono hoki a te hui a nga Kaihautu o Te Rangatahi kia pera noa atu te puta o nga whakamarama penei. Me ahu mai nga patai ki Te Ao Hou. I te putanga tuatahi o enei korero ka whakamaramatia te ture i mua atu i 1953 a ko te putanga tuarua tuatoru ko nga korero mo nga mahi whakamoni paanga maramara i waenganui i nga whanaunga tata a mo te ture tekau pauna. Kua paenga ake nga korero mo nga uauatanga o te takimano o te takitini kei nga taitara whenua me matakitaki ake inaianei ki ko ake. I roto o nga tau ko ta Te Kooti he wawahi a nga whenua Maori taitara motuhake i runga i te whakahau a te hunga no ratou aua whenua a i aua wa ko ta Te Kooti whakaaro ko ia ra te mea tika. I ata whakaarotia hoki i aua wa ko te puta o te oranga mo nga kainoho o aua whenua te tino mea hei whainga. No muri mai nei ka kitea ko nga wawahanga o aua ra kua noho hei mea whakahaehae kua pakupaku rawa a kaore e ora te tangata e whakanoho ki runga. Ko te nuinga o aua wawahanga e kore e taea te whakanohonoho he pakupaku rawa mo nga mahi ahuwhenua a he nunui rawa hei tuunga whare noa. Ko te nuinga o aua wawahanga ina noa ake te whaiti engari he koroa a i huaina he “fiddle strings” he tuaina whira. Ko enei wawahanga toro mai i te moana ki whea nei ki runga maunga ki nga wahi ngaherehere. Ko te whakaaro. o Te Kooti Whenua Maori o aua wa he mahi i runga. In our first instalment we dealt with the law as it stood before 1953 and the second and third articles discussed conversion family arrangements and the £10 rule. Having dealt fairly fully with the problem of multiple ownership and the measures which have been devised to overcome it, we now touch on the second problem. Over the years Maori freehold land has been sub-divided by the Courts to suit the wishes of the owners, or what no doubt appeared to the Court to be, at the time, the best interests of the owners. In making such subdivisions the Courts have been guided from time to time by the economic and social conditions prevailing. Although such conditions are now radically different from those of the times when the partitions were made, the old subdivisions still exist and it is not too much to say that not only Maori land-owners but the country in general is suffering greatly as a result of subdivisions which are unsatisfactory and uneconomic in the light of modern conditions. Most of these are difficult to use fully and productively and some are impossible to use properly because they are either far too small to make desirable and economic farming area or far too large for a convenient and satisfactory house site. Many of the old subdivisions are narrow pieces of land of greatly disproportionate depth and are sometimes called “fiddle strings”. Some of these extend from the sea coast to the high bush hinterland. No doubt the Courts in subdividing land in this fashion did so in the desire to be as fair as possible to all the owners by giving each of them,